Vex

Vex




Yarn: Malabrigo Kettle Dyed Pure Merino Wool Worsted from pureknits
216 yds (197 m)
6[6, 7, 7, 8 ] skeins

Yarn Substitutions: Any worsted weight yarn

Needles: US 8 (5 mm) straight needles
US 8 (5 mm) circular needles - 16 inches
US 9 (5.5 mm) circular needles – 16 inches

Sizes: XS/S [M/L, XL, 1X, 2X]
Finished Bust: 34[40,43,47,50]

Skill Level: Intermediate


Price: $5.00 US



(you will receive a email from E-Junkie with a link to the PDF file)

Catch me if you can

I know I may not talk about him much but I do have an older brother. I don't talk to him as much as my sister because 1) He lives on the other side of the country in Seattle 2) There is 3 hour time difference, he doesn't have a cell phone and he's never home,and occasionally checks email. He kinda of reminds me of the Leonardo DiCaprio movie "Catch Me If You Can". While all of his doings are very legal, he is always off doing something and hard to catch up with. He's an artist, does volunteer work with children in the arts, missionary work, a board member of a chocolate company,and much more. Up until this year he was in school working on a Ph.D. but has opted out with his second Masters degree. It's hard to date women when you're in school so hopefully we can get him married off now so my sister can get off my back. (Know any single woman looking for a 6'7" college educated, Christian man, with no children?)

Now that he's out of school and working, we've been hearing more from him. He's even sending out late birthday gifts. Yesterday, this box was at my door.

Only my brother's creative mind could come up with this. Notice the "handling" instructions. It says from "The Ghetto Packaging Corp"



Inside was this light.


It is a Starlightz from artecnicainc . It's this cool earth friendly light fixture made of paper and each one is hand-made. It goes great with my living room furniture.

Now I just have to find my brother so I can thank him.

My sister will be in town tomorrow so I'm sure to have fun stories to tell on Monday. The Vex pattern may be up this weekend too. Hopefully.

Free time + credit cards = DANGER

When you're trapped indoors with nothing but a laptop, tv, and magazines, you are liable to get yourself in a little trouble.

Never should one be up at 4am buying yarn or anything else for that matter. I did that yesterday. Not good. Did I forget to mention that I'm the type of person that buys new things to make myself feel better. Sad but true. If I've had a bad day then you're likely to find me in a Target somewhere. But I digress.

I bought this the night after my surgery.




I'm going to try my hand at a lace shawl. The Shallowtail Shawl from the latest Interweave Knits. Mamacita has this wonderful secretary. They fuss and fight like the Odd Couple but she is such a wonderful woman that takes care of my mother and talks about us like we are her own kids. I want to make her something and Mamacita thinks this would be a good one.

I've been reading the latest InStyle and Vogue magazines. When I get a chance I'll show you all some of the cute things that I want to buy. I need to go buy a lottery ticket because that will be the only way I can afford all the things I want.

They're outta here!

The tonsils are gone. The surgery went well. I went in early Thursday and I was back home by noon. My parents came to take care of me this weekend and it was a great comfort just to have them here. I'm not in much pain but the drugs I'm taking keep knocking me out. I don't know how people get addicted to this stuff cause I'm not enjoying it.



Thanks to my drug-induced state I don't have much of an attention span. I've been working some socks and doing some reading. I haven't been too successful with either. I keep falling asleep mid-sentence or mid-knit.

I'll be on sick-leave from work for the next week, so I'll be back to fill you in on all the fun I'm having while I'm trapped in the house.

They'll keep you company

Red, The Dog, and Snuffy will keep you company while I'm away. See ya later.

Conversation with Mamacita

Excerpt of today's conversation with Mamacita



Mamacita: Did you get your new Lion Brand catalog?
Me: Yeah, I did...
Mamacita: They did a complete turn around didn't they?
Me: They sure did. I almost passed out when I saw it.
Mamacita: It was amazing
Me: There wasn't all that fun fur. I guess they got tired of people making fun of them.
Mamacita: I've never had a problem with their yarn. I like their yarn. It was just...
Me: those patterns.
Mamacita: And did you see they even have the nerve to charge for the patterns now?
Me: I saw that too. There's actually some things I would make.
Mamacita: I like the one for the yoga mat.
Me: Yeah,I like that one too.
Mamacita: But of course they make you pay for that one.


If you haven't seen the catalog yet, trust me, it's 10x better.



Also finished my latest. I'm calling it "Vex".





Now I'm off to fold clothes. I probably haven't folded them in about a month, literally. You should see the pile.

It's that time of year again!

My favorite two knit-alongs are back again. YEAH!

With the fall weather setting in, Christie and Jennifer are hosting the Fall Cable KAL again this year. I have a few cabled sweaters on tap so this is a great one for me. If you plan on doing any cablework this fall, you should join too.

And with October rounding the corner, Lauren is taking sign-ups for Socktoberfest . I have 3 pairs of socks I want to do, which include the Regia and Koigu socks already in progress. If I can finish those two pairs then I'll start a pair with my coveted Socks That Rock .

KAL anyone?

Stickin to the plan

Usually when I design something it's because an idea just came to me. I'll wake up in the middle of the night or see an object and start sketching. I try hard to make sure that my ideas are my own and that I'm not subconsciously copying from someone else. I stopped reading fashion magazines for a while just because I didn't want it to affect my creativity too much.



This one came to me one day while I was at work back in July. I sketched and was excited about my idea. Now imagine my disappointment when I saw a pattern that resembles this. I felt like I had in someway copied the idea but I really hadn't.

I spent the latter part of last week trying to alter the idea so that it looked more original. The 4th attempt was a sign that changing it wasn't what I really wanted in the first place. I like my original idea, it's what I wanted, and I've decided to stick to it.





This sweater is the reason I bought the Malabrigo from Pure Knits. I heart this stuff. It is soooooooo soft. It does have a reputation of pilling and after I blocked I can tell that it will but I don't care. That's what sweater shavers are for.

I will not be tricked

I freely admit my slight obsesssion with all things Audrey. I love the era of classic fashion that she symbolizes.



But just because I love Audrey does not mean I will be tricked by The Gap . Not even Audrey will suck me into this fashion trend.




The skinny pant is evil. Find me a woman that is a size 8+ with hips and butt that
looks good in these things and I may reconsider.

And I don't know about you but doesn't that ad make you want to break out into a rendition of Billie Jean or Beat It .

Love, thy name is SpaceBag

I've been slowly preparing for my parents arrival in a few weeks. I have a second bedroom which was supposed to be my office but instead , over time, turns into a random mess of fabric and yarn. I had it organized for awhile but that didn't keep. I decided that I must find a better way to store things.



Thus the SpaceBags. A way to store things, still be able to identify them, and reduce the space needed to store them. My yarn stash covered my futon, a rubbermaid bin, and numerous shopping bags. It now all fits in the rubbermaid container.

SpaceBag, I love you!

I bought a jumbo pack from Bed, Bath, and Beyond, so I was also able to store some bedding and summer clothes. Later this week I'm going to store some of my fabric stash.


I also watched a little college football this weekend. I'm not really a big football fan but I can watch it. I found this to be one of the funniest things ever.

Akron beat NC State with 3 seconds left in the game. Hilarious! Why is this funny you ask? Being that NCSU is a local college, I know a few people that went there and to know that a college from my home state that wasn't seen as a threat came to town and kicked butt makes me chuckle.

And now.......GO BUCKEYES!!!



I'm usually tame with my alumni spirit but some things have to be celebrated. Texas who?

And in case the media tries to blow this out of proportion, let me tell you it's nothing new and not really a big deal. Rowdy OSU fans have been setting the campus on fire after big games since 1997. I once had a dumpster set on fire 5 feet from my apartment door. The fire dept had it out in 10 minutes. The city is used to it now.

Baby shower review

I'm pretty new to this baby shower thing so I was excited but nervous. Would my games be fun? Would there be enough food?

Things didn't start off great. I drove up Thursday night to avoid the rain from Hurricane Ernesto but it just followed me. Friday was a miserable day of driving around getting groceries. An umbrella was useless and it was COLD! Let me also complain about the cost of groceries in the VA/DC area. Ridiculous!

Saturday things cleared up. I bought balloons and made the decorations. I put the candies I made into cheap baby bottles and tied on balloons.






I made baked spaghetti, a deli tray, a veggie tray, and bought a cake.


The Ohio State vs Northern Illinois football game was on so her husband asked if we could make it a baby shower/football game party. Since the shower was co-ed and most of us were Buckeyes, we allowed it. We played games during commericials and half-time.
The best game was called "Guess the Baby Powders". You take ziploc bags, fill them with various white powders (baby powder, baby cereal, powdered milk,flour, sugar,pancake mix,etc) and those that guess the most right win.

It was a small but nice turn-out. There was some concern that travelers from Ohio wouldn't make it but they did. The only disappointment was that all of their family (6+ people) that RSVP'ed and live within 20minutes did not show up. The bums!

They recieved a lot of nice gifts and my friends were very thankful that I made them have a baby shower. (Oh yeah! The baby sweaters and blanket were a hit!)

Not in a bloggy mood

Hi all. I'm not in much of a bloggy mood. My "new" computer is back in for more repairs so I'm using my work computer for the time being. Hopefully I'll be getting it back in a day or so and then I'll fill you in on the baby shower and all that. Till then, keep your eyes and ears open. If you hear reports of a woman destroying a Apple store in Raleigh, NC then that may be me. Bail money may be required.